Volvo V60 Cross Country D4

Driving the Volvo V60 Cross Country was a bit like reuniting with an old friend. With its few flaws, perhaps, but above all with what we love it for...

Let's be completely honest with you: this test drive of the Volvo V60 Cross Country wasn't even on the schedule. Only then, when returning my XC40 Recharge , I came across this absolutely sublime copy, brown/cream interior, just the way I like it. A little email to block the beast for a few days and presto, here we are on the A71 aboard this gleaming station wagon for a sporty stay in the Gorges du Tarn. He is a fighter, after all!

"I'm not showing you around the car?" launches me, mockingly, the press relations manager of the brand when I arrive. My inexhaustible passion for Volvo, and more precisely for its station wagons, actually led me more than once to the brand's headquarters to pick up test cars there. It started with an XC70 of the time , then, pell-mell, two XC90s ( here and there ), a V90, also Cross Country , and two XC40s, hybrid and electric . Volvo: I manage.

This V60 Cross Country had dazzled me on its first pass, therefore; an opinion that will not change one iota during the time of the test. I don't have much to say except that it is beautiful, in fact. We could say that the great design codes, like Thor's hammerhead headlights, have been known since the presentation of the Concept Coupé in 2013, but it's pretty crazy to see how the nine years of existence have slipped into them without a wrinkle. This break, certainly in a rather advantageous presentation with its large 19″ wheels and its pretty paint, is of rare elegance.

And inside? We will say that the software (= what happens in the screens) is starting to stick out its tongue. We know it without any modification since the XC90, and the XC90 is eight years old, and eight years in computing is a lot . It's especially the digital counters that bother me, due to their virtual absence of personalization and their bifbof reactivity. The central screen deserves the adjective “classic”. The graphics do not seek any form of modernity (and could even be a little dropped in terms of cartography) but are not shocking either, the ergonomics are all the same rather well done, in short, and even if a refresh would have been appreciated at the over the years, my V60 screens have done the job.

The atmosphere has not changed. Again, the overall layout of the dashboard, with the central screen in portrait format, has not changed since life, but we do not care a bit because we are there. Despite the years, I still find these Volvo interiors perfectly remarkable serenity. Technology does not dictate its law, the atmosphere is relaxed; if I wanted to exaggerate a little, I would say that there is a form of human warmth on board the brand's cars. My V60 is therefore no exception and, even if (and logically) there is a little less wood and a little more plastic than on board the cars of the 90 range, it feels awfully good. .

If we feel awfully good there, it's also because we have space. The four of us left with arms and luggage and everything came back like a charm. So, of course, current expectations in design and aerodynamics have somewhat stripped Volvo station wagons of their reputation as infallible movers, but my V60 Cross Country, with its 529 liters of trunk and its more than decent roominess, does not demerit .

Direction Millau, then. Contact, starting, disaster: an anything but pleasant rattle escapes from the hood. This is something that I would have noticed on all the Volvo diesels that have passed through my hands: the four-cylinder does not have, but then not at all, the good manners of the old five-cylinders with, in particular, a sound at starting and at low speed which breaks the ears. The addition of micro-hybridization on my 190 hp version (hence the B 4 instead of the D 4, the famous “B” of “micro-hybrid”) still allows cuts and restarts of the motor archi felted, but here it is: approval in town is, for my taste, not at the level.

“We don't care about the city!”, you might retort; either, let us take the main axes. And there, everything is back to normal: my V60 is super-mega-archi-top fun to drive. Even a little heckled in the virolos in the gorges of the Tarn, the Volvo is not disunited and responds effectively to the demands of the driver and the environment, taking care to do everything to reassure the occupants of the break.

And on the motorway, it's rock solid: perfect soundproofing (an opportunity to once again idolize the Bowers & Wilkins sound system, you'll never spend €3,300 better!), imperturbable directional stability, comfort brought to the firmament, good driving: over the 1,760 km of the test, around zero kilometers were traveled with any form of discomfort. My V60 traces its route and everyone inside, driver and passengers, have the certainty of having a good time during the trip. If that's not wonderful.

Volvo's various tests over time have also made me see one thing: on the price side, the brand is no longer really embarrassed. 41,050 € minimum for a V60, 56,000 € for the Cross Country version and 70,840 € for my car, certainly full toupe, but which ultimately remains powered by a four-cylinder diesel engine of 190 hp. Remains controlled consumption, with 6.9 l/100 km recorded on the on-board computer.

Let's wrap up the case. You may have felt it, this article has a bit of a flavor of conclusion, of twilight, of the end of a moment. And this moment is that of the hyper judicious and coherent range created by the brand starting with the XC90, at the time the flower of the spearhead of the offensive wanted by Geely, the new owner of the Swedish brand. An end calls for a beginning, and a new large SUV (whose name we don't yet know, except that it will leave the alphanumeric denomination of rigor for so many years) will point the tip of its nose during 2022, in turn head leading a new movement, largely electrified and autonomous.

As for you, dear V60 Cross Country, it was a real pleasure to drive you over these few days. I felt perfectly at ease behind the wheel, with this sweet feeling of finding an old friend, a lifelong accomplice, whom we know by heart but of whom we will probably never be able to get tired. Human warmth, I told you ????